First homi­cide of 2015

Man, 22, dies after in­ci­dent on city street

WIN­NIPEG po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the city’s first homi­cide of 2015.

Po­lice ar­rived at the scene in the area of Is­abel Street and Pa­cific Av­enue about 11:20 p.m. Fri­day.

A 22-year-old man was trans­ported to hos­pi­tal in crit­i­cal con­di­tion, where he later died. The area where he was found was cor­doned off with po­lice tape through the night.

Po­lice have yet to re­lease the vic­tim’s name, but rel­a­tives have iden­ti­fied him as Dustin McKay, a for­mer stu­dent at Gor­don Bell High School.

Po­lice were pro­vid­ing few de­tails Satur­day, but peo­ple who live in the area say there was a com­mo­tion there be­fore emer­gency crews ar­rived.

“My sis­ter went out for a smoke, and she heard a lot of yelling on the cor­ner,” said a man who lives nearby.

The man walked to the con­ve­nience store at the Husky gas sta­tion on the north­west cor­ner and was told by other by­standers a man had been hit by a ve­hi­cle. A story go­ing around at the scene was the vic­tim may have been pushed or dragged into on­com­ing traf­fic.

olice spokesman Const. Ja­son Michalyshen said a ve­hi­cle was in­volved in the in­ci­dent in some way and the vic­tim was in the road­way at some point. In­ves­ti­ga­tors are try­ing to de­ter­mine whether the vic­tim was struck by a ve­hi­cle.

Au­topsy re­sults are pend­ing, and it’s not clear if the vic­tim died as a re­sult of be­ing struck by a ve­hi­cle. It’s also not known whether the peo­ple in the ve­hi­cle in­volved knew McKay, or whether they re­mained at the scene af­ter­ward.

Michalyshen said po­lice had some in­di­vid­u­als in cus­tody Satur­day. But th­ese, he said, could be wit­nesses.

While it’s un­clear if McKay was killed or even struck by a ve­hi­cle, this win­ter has been a tough one for pedes­tri­ans. In De­cem­ber alone, 10 Man­i­toba pedes­tri­ans were struck by ve­hi­cles, re­sult­ing in two deaths.

There has also been a pro­lif­er­a­tion of hit-and-runs. That in­cludes 21-year- old Cody Joss, who was killed while cross­ing Inkster Boule­vard at McGregor Street on Dec. 19. The driver of a dark­coloured pickup truck who fled the scene has not been found.

On Dec. 18, two pedes­tri­ans were struck near McPhillips Street and Jarvis Av­enue, and a 70-year-old woman died of her in­juries on Christ­mas Eve. A 60-year- old man was treated for non­life-threat­en­ing in­juries.

A 29-year- old man was sent to hos­pi­tal in crit­i­cal con­di­tion after be­ing struck by a Ford Fu­sion on Sher­brook Street on Dec. 28.

Two pedes­tri­ans were hit in sep­a­rate mishaps on Dec. 12, one in­volv­ing a bus near the cor­ner of Portage Av­enue and Carl­ton Street.

In the other in­ci­dent, a woman push­ing her two chil­dren in a stroller near Os­borne Street and Bran­don Av­enue was hit. The chil­dren were not in­jured.